Renting rights: what England can learn from fairer systems around the world

-
Koldo Casla, Newcastle University 


Record numbers of families now rent privately in Britain. Twice as many middle-aged people rent their homes compared to 2008, and it has been estimated that about one-third of millennials will rent for their whole life.
Renting the house you live in has its advantages as it gives you greater freedom of movement and saves you other costs: insurance, service charge, deposit, mortgage interest, to name a few. Yet, for most people, renting privately is not really a matter of choice. It is the result of stagnant wages and the fact that house values rise much faster than the economy.
Britain is becoming a country of (reluctant) tenants. But the law does not keep the balance fairly between landlord’s interests and tenant’s rights.

English law on rental evictions does not protect households’ security of tenure. A recent report by campaign groups Just Fair and Generation Rent shows that a system that allows landlords to evict tenants without reason breaches international law. Yet this is permitted under Section 21 of the UK Housing Act 1988.

Poor housing proliferates

According to the government’s English Housing Survey, the private rental sector has the highest proportion – 38% – of homes with at least one indicator of poor housing such as mould or damp. More than one quarter (27%) of privately rented homes fail the decent home standard, compared to 20% in the case of owner-occupied homes and 13% in the social housing sector.
Many tenants have good reasons to complain about the state of their flat. But English law does not currently require all landlords to maintain a property in a standard that is fit for habitation. The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 imposes obligations to repair on landlords but only if there is “disrepair” – damp, mould or asbestos not causing structural damage are not covered.

In this context, tenants are at risk of eviction if they take legal action because Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 permits landlords to evict tenants with no fault and without giving a reason.
The National Audit Office watchdog has documented that the ending of private sector tenancies is the biggest single driver of statutory homelessness in England. Based on official data from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Housing, Generation Rent has found a tight correlation between homelessness and Section 21 evictions: 92% in London and 88% outside of London.




Rising homelessness is linked to evictions. jax10289 / Shutterstock.com

Lessons from others

The lack of awareness and understanding of tenants’ personal circumstances is not unique to England. My own research in Spain on foreclosures and mortgage evictions and on rental evictions has shown similar patterns. If the English and the Spanish markets have something in common it is precisely the rise of renting as a form of tenure following rapidly growing prices, which makes home ownership unaffordable for most families.
Security of tenure and fair treatment when it comes to rental evictions are perfectly compatible with landlords’ right to private property. Law and practice in other places with longer traditions in the rented housing sector prove that things can be done differently if there is will for it.
Scotland, for example, distinguishes between “mandatory” and “discretionary” grounds of eviction. In discretionary cases, landlords must prove that relevant circumstances exist but the court will only grant recovery of possession orders if it considers it is reasonable to do so.
In San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the US, tenants that are evicted with no fault have a right to a relocation payment from the landlord.
South African courts usually urge public authorities to report on their capacity to provide alternative accommodation to those in need who would otherwise be rendered homeless by the eviction. Authorities are expected to determine occupants’ needs by engaging with them meaningfully regarding their circumstances. Where occupants cannot afford the available private housing and the eviction would lead to homelessness, the court makes the order contingent on public provision of alternative accommodation. If necessary, landlords are expected to wait until the authorities are able to provide a housing solution.
In the Netherlands and Germany, courts are entitled to take tenants’ personal circumstances into account to balance tenant interests with those of landlords when judging the fairness of the lease termination.
England must pay close attention because alternatives do exist. With renting in England a reality for the foreseeable future, no-fault evictions must end and best practice sought from places where renting is the norm and fairer systems are in place.The Conversation

Koldo Casla, Research Associate, Institute of Health & Society, Newcastle University


 This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How the stoicism of Roman philosophers can help us deal with depression

-
Image
Robert S. Colter, University of Wyoming Depression is on the rise. A study conducted by the World Health Organization found an increase of 20 percent in depression cases within just a decade. I work on a university campus. One might expect such a place to feel vibrant and energetic, but lately there seems to be more fatigue and malaise. Even for me, on some days it can feel hard to face the world. As a scholar of ancient philosophy and a practicing stoic , I have found great solace in the works of Roman stoic philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius , emperor of Rome, and Epictetus , teacher of Stoic philosophy and a former slave. What tools do these ancient thinkers offer to deal with depression? Of course, I must add here that clinical depression, which is a serious health issue and should be treated by a professional, is a different matter than the sort of ordinary depression and fatigue that most of us might feel from time to time. What is stoicism? Stoici...
Read more

Brexit will hit Britain's overseas territories hard – why is no one talking about it?

-
Image
Paul Hare, Heriot-Watt University When the Brexit referendum result was announced last June, I was working on the Turks and Caicos Islands, one of the UK’s overseas territories in the Caribbean. A collection of about 40 tropical islands, of which eight are inhabited, people there were shocked at the result. They were annoyed they hadn’t had a chance to vote, and concerned about their future. It was all too apparent that neither side in the campaign had given serious thought to the implications for territories like this one, and the situation has not improved since then. There are genuine and serious concerns that need to move up the agenda. The 14 British Overseas Territories (OTs) are remnants of empire, mainly scattered through the tropics. An exception is Gibraltar, the only territory that is also part of the EU. It is facing well documented issues such as a possible closed border with neighbouring Spain and losing the right to provide services such as finance and o...
Read more

When kids run for 15 minutes in school every day, here's what happens to their health

-
Image
   Colin Moran, University of Stirling ; Naomi Brooks, University of Stirling , and Ross Chesham, University of Stirling If you haven’t heard of the Daily Mile yet, your time has come. Now taking place in 3,600 primary schools each day in 35 countries around the world, it takes children outside during normal lesson time to run or walk laps of the playground for 15 minutes. The ones who run cover around a mile each day. The initiative has an endearing back story . It was developed six years ago by St Ninians Primary School in Stirling in central Scotland after children and teachers felt the pupils needed to be fitter. Other schools quickly realised the value, and it started to spread. It is now happening in around half of Scottish primaries and a quarter of those in England; while schools have also got on board everywhere from the US to the United Arab Emirates to Nepal to Australia. With all this enthusiasm,...
Read more